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<body> <Table Width="550" border="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" cellpadding="0"><TR><TD Width="35"><IMG SRC="//www.totalmotorsport.com/images/spacer.gif" WIDTH="35" HEIGHT="1"></td><td> <CENTER><Table border="0" width="100%"> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="5">AMERICAN LE MANS SERIES</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="left"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="2">29/06/2004</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="4">Panoz Esperante GT-LM Runs Strongly In ALMS Debut</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="3">Team Plans More Races</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="1">  </FONT></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="left"><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="2"><B>New Panoz Esperante GT-LM Runs Strongly In American Le Mans Debut</B><BR> <BR> <B>Team Plans More Races</B><BR> <BR> The new Panoz Esperante GT-LM accomplished a strong and impressive debut race in the American Le Mans Series this past weekend and will now see more action in the professional sports car racing series.<BR> <BR> After qualifying second, setting the fastest race lap and racing up to as high as second place in the GT class in Sunday's ALMS race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, the Panoz Motor Sports-fielded car was eliminated from contention for victory due to damage suffered in an on-track collision with another car. However, the car's builder and the race team were more than satisfied with the machine's performance and plan to race it in at least the next four events on the ALMS schedule.<BR> <BR> The car will next be in action in the New England Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, July 2-5, co-driven by American racers Gunnar Jeannette and Kelly Collins drove with Jeannette in the debut race.<BR> <BR> "It felt really good to race hard and contend for the win again," said Andy Waldrep, team manager for Panoz Motor Sports. "From all the testing and development we have done, we knew the car would run strongly. Gunnar and David are good drivers and they performed very well in the car. It's too bad that we didn't get the result that we wanted because of the accident, but we know that car has the potential to challenge the Porsches and Ferraris and to win in the American Le Mans Series and that's what we're here to do.<BR> <BR> "It was also great to receive the welcome that we did from the fans at Mid-Ohio," Waldrep said. "They were glad to see us back and they loved the car. Sports car racing fans like to see new cars and new technology and we were happy to give something back to them."<BR> <BR> The Panoz factory team was a mainstay of professional sports car racing from 1997 through 2002, enjoying popularity not only in North America but also abroad in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the European Le Mans Series and the FIA GT Series. The Panoz team was voted Best Team at Le Mans in 1999 and seven different sports car racing championships have been won by Panoz entries.<BR> <BR> The team fielded Prototype entries in the American Le Mans Series from the formation of the series in 1999 through 2002, scoring eight overall race wins and five poles during that span, as well as the 1999 Prototype team and manufacturer's championships, with the Panoz LMP01 Prototype. The Mid-Ohio event marked the return of the Don Panoz-owned team to ALMS competition.<BR> <BR> The GT-LM is based on the Panoz Esperante road car built by Panoz Auto Development and is powered by a 5.0 litre modular V-8 engine from Elan Power Products. The racing version was built and developed by Elan Motorsport Technologies (EMT), a Panoz-related diversified motorsports company located in Braselton.<BR> <BR> "We were more than pleased with the way the car performed under racing conditions at Mid-Ohio," said David Bowes, Chief Executive Officer of EMT. "The GT-LM project is intended to be a customer car program for EMT and Panoz, and we had several potential customers paying very close attention at Mid-Ohio. Hopefully the fans will soon be seeing more Esperantes mixing it up on the track with the Porsches and Ferraris in the GT class."<BR> <BR> </FONT></TD></TR> </TABLE><BR> </CENTER> <BR><CENTER><font size="1" color="#808080" face="Tahoma">Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport</font></CENTER> </td> </tr> </table> </body>